Named for a Hero
Elijah Baley never lived to see the world named after him. The Earth detective, famous for solving cases on Solaria and Aurora alongside his robot partner R. Daneel Olivaw, became a legendary figure in the Settler movement. His advocacy for Earthpeople to colonize new worlds — without the crutch of massive robot workforces — inspired millions to leave Earth.
Baleyworld was among the earliest Settler colonies, established in the wave of outward expansion that would eventually transform the galaxy.
The Settler Wave
The Settler movement — colonies founded by Earthpeople — proved to be the winning strategy for humanity's future. While the fifty Spacer worlds stagnated with their tiny, robot-dependent populations, Settler worlds grew exponentially. Within a millennium, Settler-descended worlds numbered in the thousands.
This explosive growth eventually overwhelmed the Spacer worlds and laid the foundation for the Galactic Empire. Every one of the Empire's 25 million worlds traced its origins back to the Settler expansion that Elijah Baley helped inspire.